semi-gloss DOES have gloss (not full gloss), but something less. Even "flat" has a small degree of gloss (as it's extremely difficult to achieve totally flat surfaces - re reflections).

During the last 60's/early 70's all of the American car makers used some 'non glossy' black accents on their performance cars. in some cases, it was much much flatter than what Chevrolet used. The problem with all of those 'non full gloss' paints is that just rubbing them, washing them, polishing them, etc... made them MORE glossy! Have you ever seen the flat black paints after they've been washed, rubbed, etc for a number of years? They look more glossy as a result of all that.

So, talking about how glossy, or non glossy, 44 yr old 'original' paint is NOW.. is subject to a LOT of error sources. I'm old enough to remember how these early Camaros looked when new, and I owned some then, and had many friends with them as well. I bought a new '70 RR, with a non-glossy black on the hood, and I remember like yesterday how difficult it was when polishing/waxing the car, NOT to get anything on the black portion, as it made it look ugly when you got polish or wax on the edges of the black hood. A lot of people would just polish / wax the entire thing, for a consistent look, even though it totally changed the 'gloss level' as painted in the factory.

This is only my opinion, which I've restated as many times as new threads appear. To me the tail panel used "black out" paint which was a semi gloss. If you polish semi gloss it will become more reflective and change towards a gloss. I do not believe based on what I have inspected/examined that the "black out" paint was the same paint they applied to black cars. To prove my observation look at the second picture in NOYENKO posted #131, and you'll see the contrast between the black exterior paint and the tail panel paint.

"If the car required Z28, Z10, or Z11 stripes or a black rear end panel or rockers, they were masked and manually sprayed in the in-line repair booth/oven system after the reflow oven, including the cowl vent panel; spoilers were painted body color separate from the body, and were final-installed to the deck lid just prior to the repair booth. The rear window filler panel, deck lid and spoiler were masked and sprayed stripe color in the repair booth, and baked in the repair oven before the body went back downstairs to the Trim Shop. The paint guns in the repair booth were fed from manifolds that were part of the main color circulating system so that the repair booth used exactly the same paint the main color booths were using."

Was this physically before, or after the blackout booth on the line?

The statement above indicating the repair booth as the source of panel blackout almost makes it a done deal that the rocker panels and tail panel were painted using the same black paint as the rest of the car was painted with, however while it was reflowed to an extent, it was not buffed out to a final shine like the rest of the body was.

For NOR I have a picture in the book showing this element taking place on the line. I did not precisely determine where just yet but that would be easy enough since the vending machines are in the background. I can look at the prints for vending areas that were set up adjacent to the paint line areas.

We could simply ask the guys that did this work, or you could ask these same guys this question and many more on any topic. I still have a few spots open for the Norwood GM Heritage center trip and tour.

For NOR I have a picture in the book showing this element taking place on the line. I did not precisely determine where just yet but that would be easy enough since the vending machines are in the background. I can look at the prints for vending areas that were set up adjacent to the paint line areas.

We could simply ask the guys that did this work, or you could ask these same guys this question and many more on any topic. I still have a few spots open for the Norwood GM Heritage center trip and tour.

I guess polished is to high a description, they were wet sanded with mineral spirits pror to going back into the main line reflow oven. Only cars produced by GM for shows, and special events like the real indy pace cars used at the tracks were actually cut and polished.

since we are having quite a discussion on 'gloss' 'semigloss', etc, I think it would be beneficial if we all shared a similar definition. The following link has both general definitions, and very good technical definitions of 'gloss' from an optical perspective.